Grading the Houston Texans in Their Loss to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Landry Locker Gives Out His Weekly Grades

Landry Locker will post his grades for the Texans the day after the game each week. Here are the grades for week two. Follow Landry on YouTube.

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What we witnessed Monday night at NRG Stadium was one of the most frustrating losses of the DeMeco Ryans and C.J. Stroud Era. Here are the grades from the Monday Night Football disaster.

Quarterback: F

Bottom Line: Baker Mayfield was the superior quarterback on Monday night and remains the superior quarterback overall. He is an elevator, not dependent on his surroundings.

Elite quarterbacks elevate their surroundings when they aren’t perfect. Non-elite quarterbacks are more dependent on their surroundings, elevating them.

What are the excuses for Stroud? The poor offensive line play? The play-calling?

Tampa Bay’s offensive line is more banged-up and depleted than the Houston offensive line, and for the third straight season, Mayfield has a first-year play-caller.

Accuracy is supposed to be one of Stroud’s strengths, but right now it’s an issue. He currently throws too many uncatchable balls, most notably to Nico Collins at the one-yard line and Xavier Hutchinson on a completion that would have at least gotten the football into the red zone, but instead led to a field goal to cut the lead to one point.

On the other hand, Mayfield gave his playmakers opportunities to make plays and was able to overcome shaky offensive line play.

Stroud has acknowledged that his body language has been an issue. It sticks out like a sore thumb when Mayfield is on the same football field as him.

Maybe it’s a mental thing, maybe it’s a surroundings thing, maybe it’s a Stroud thing, maybe it’s a combination of everything, but either way, it’s not great.

Mayfield might not be elite, but he’s currently much closer to it than Stroud, and it’s not close.

Running Backs: F

I know that Nick Chubb had the touchdown run, and Woody Marks had some good moments. However, until the Dare Ogunbowale playing significant snaps at running back thing isn’t a thing anymore, it’s an automatic F grade from me.

Wide Receivers: C

It’s tough to grade these guys.

Nico Collins makes plays when he has chances, but the passes must be catchable.

Xavier Hutchinson seems to make plays when given opportunities, but the best route he ran was followed by an uncatchable pass from Stroud that led to a field goal rather than a trip to the red zone to take the lead.

Where are the rookies they spent premium picks on? Jayden Higgins has two 20+ yard catches despite just having four targets on the season. Jaylin Noel is basically a punt returner with minimal targets on the season.

I guess I will give them a C.

Tight Ends: D

Dalton Schultz had three catches for 29 yards. Jakob Johnson had some tough moments blocking. I think Harrison Bryant played, but I’m not sure.

Offensive Line: D

DeMeco Ryans called out the communication, the blocking is what we have come to expect, but Tampa Bay’s offensive line wasn’t great either, and they were able to find a way to win.

I have sadly come to expect this from the offensive line. I expect better from Stroud.

The only reason I’m not giving them an F is that I don’t think Stroud, especially given what Mayfield was dealing with, deserves to be completely let off the hook.

Defensive Line: C+

Danielle Hunter was awesome with two sacks, Will Anderson was solid with a career-high 10 pressures, but Sheldon Rankins was the only interior defensive lineman who played well.

The Bucs had over five yards per carry, so it obviously wasn’t awesome all around, and without re-watching the game, it feels like Foley Fatukasi was getting pushed back often.

Tommy Togiai has been inactive in the first two games despite being called the most consistent player on the team by the head coach and getting a contract extension. How long will that last?

The interior definitely lowered the grade here.

Linebackers: C

There were some good moments from the linebackers, but Tampa Bay ran the ball well.

Azeez Al-Shaair had a solid game, but dropped a near interception after running stride-for-stride with receiver Emeka Egbuka.

Henry To'oTo'o’s whiff on Mayfield on his fourth-down run during the game-winning drive was the lowlight for the group.

Christian Harris was a non-factor again and had a 15-yard penalty.

Cornerbacks: C

Not terrible. There were moments for Tampa Bay receivers, but the corners held up alright.

Safeties: C-

Safety play has been one of the most disappointing parts of the team.

Eye discipline still appears to be an issue for Calen Bullock. C.J. Gardner-Johnson had a pressure on Mayfield and six tackles.

Special Teams: A+

A blocked punt to give a struggling offense the ball in scoring position and a punt return to set up the go-ahead score, along with perfection from the kicker. The third phase did their part and more.

Coaching: C-

Penalties remain an issue. The offense continues to make the same mistakes it’s made for a while.

Personnel-wise, I have already mentioned the Ogunbowale thing at running back, the neglect of the rookies.

The end of the first half lacked urgency despite an opportunity to get points.

DeMeco Ryans bizarrely handled the clock at the end of the game, using two timeouts when the clock was already stopped, rather than using them to stop the clock and give the offense some time.

It was a poor effort all around, but Frank Ross’s special teams prevented the coaches from getting a failing grade.

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